I'm curious about the logistics behind this. Do you have an issues carrying items to work? Spare clothes, laptop, lunch, etc. Also, do you shower and change once you get to work?
I recently took the plunge and started biking to work semi-regularly as well. Here's a few points that got me going.
Sweat. If you have a shower at work then great. If not there's no reason to go full tilt on the way to work. Relax, go at a reasonable pace to avoid working up a major sweat. We have a shower at the office, but I rarely use it because it's not too hectic of a ride.
Store stuff at work. Drive into work on a Monday and bring clothes and stuff with you and store in a locker or somewhere at work. Then bike the rest of the days and drive home later in the week.
If you can leave your laptop at work the odd day.. you'll enjoy life at home that much more :)
I can easily pack a change of "work clothes" (used to include dress shoes), toiletries, camp towel and lunch in a small backpack or largish messenger bag. Having a shower available is strongly recommended, however. Built-in in hydration for the backpack isn't a bad idea either.
I've gotten lazy and haven't biked in in awhile, but I used to do it every day by heading into work about 30-45 minutes earlier than I would drive, swapping my shower immediately after I got up for showering at work, and compensating for a slightly longer commute. If you compare the amount of time you'd spend driving to a gym, working out, then driving somewhere else, it's a no-brainer, bike commuting kills two birds with one stone and saves you gas money. Or you can try what I did for a while and get up even earlier to bike to the gym, workout, shower, then bike to work, using the cycling as warmup and cool down for the gym workout.
A backpack solves all of those issues. None of that is necessarily very large.
As for the shower, some work places have showers. Depending on how much you work out and what the climate is like you may or may not be a heavy sweater after a ride to work. People who work out often tend to sweat more because their bodies adapt to their routines and start to sweat at the slightest hint of physical exercise. People who don't work out extensively often tend to be more reserved when it comes to sweating. You are going to work, not a date. So it may not be an issue at all.
I can't wait to get a bike next season and start biking to work.
yes! i just have a milk-crate, but it makes all the difference.
yes also to OP on the "bicycling to work wakes me up super well" - i did in a northern US city for 6 years, and the icy/cold months when i had to rely on transit instead were remarkably more challenging, especially the mornings, even if i kept up other indoor exercise.
All bodies are different; I read the GP and thought, "yeah, no, I'm in fairly decent shape, and I have to work really hard for a good long while to break a sweat". I never have to use chalk while rock climbing, for instance. I think my body's adaptation at this point is that light physical exertion isn't even a warmup for me any more, and I've burned quite a bit of "insulation" off (biking in to work does make the fridge cold labs feel warmer). That being said, having a shower is another good way to wake myself up, sweaty or not.
WRT Chalk & climbing, propensity to sweaty hands differs from person to person, but for both myself and my climbing partner, need for chalk is almost all mental. When I've got a cool head and smooth moves, my hands are dry as a bone. When I'm freaking out on lead, my hands get progressively more slippery...
FWIW chalk improves the friction coefficient of your hands, and seems to reduce friction damage to the skin, so I try to use it anyway.
When I have plans to bike to work, I usually stage extra sets of work clothes/shoes at my office the day before(when I take mass transit), so I can carry a light load on my bike commute.
Luckily for me, my office provides showers and lockers, a laptop I can keep at home, and free lunch on the premises, so load is not much of an issue for me.
If you do need to carry some stuff, you can always get a pannier(a bag mounted to the side of your rear wheel), which is more comfortable than a bookbag filled with stuff.
